The invention pertains to a locating device for vehicles with a carrier to be mounted in the vehicle in which a gyro-sensor (10) is located to detect the movement of moving components for the purpose of determining the location.
Locating devices for vehicles that are used in particular to aid navigation on streets using optical and/or acoustical signals must be able to provide reliable determination of the location. There are satellite navigation methods and navigation devices available to roughly determine the location, but they do not provide the required precision. There is a known method for determining the location more precisely based on this idea in which the movement of the vehicle is recorded and the values obtained are used to calculate the exact location.
To accomplish this, the locating device, which can also be a part of the navigation device, is generally manufactured as a self-sufficient device and installed in the corresponding vehicle. However, the problem arises that the corresponding devices must be installed differently in different vehicles. This is particularly critical because the corresponding sensors (gyro-sensors) must be oriented a specific way to be able to determine the location exactly, and therefore a single locating device that can be used in all vehicles cannot be manufactured. For this reason, locating devices are suggested in the state of the art in which the corresponding sensor (gyro-sensor) is installed in the locating device such that it can be aligned during production or subsequently according to the installation situation. It is suggested in WO 99/02943, for example, to connect the gyro-sensor to an adjustable knob or set screw, where the top of the adjustable knob or set screw is outside of the locating device and the gyro-sensor itself is inside the locating device. Due to the fact that the top of the adjustable knob or set screw can then be accessed from outside the locating device, the gyro-sensor can be adjusted accordingly for the corresponding installation situation after the locating device has been manufactured. A similar procedure is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,529. In this patent the gyro-sensor is placed on a bearing block using an axle that runs through its center point. One end of this axle is connected to an adjusting knob. There is also an axle on the disk that contains grooves in the direction parallel to the axle. There is a locking mechanism that uses the grooves to prevent the gyro-sensor from being rotated and from rotating by itself. The axle is rotated using the adjusting knob to adjust the position of the gyro-sensor to match the corresponding installation situation of the locating device. Once the final position for the corresponding orientation is reached, the gyro-sensor is also secured in this position at the same time by the locking mechanism that interacts with the grooves. As can easily be seen, the known devices used to adjust the orientation according to the various conditions require complex adjusting that is also very difficult to automate due to the precision required. In addition, other securing devices are required, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,529, in particular, to permanently stabilize the gyro-sensor setting.
That is why the invention is the result of the task of specifying a locating device that can be used regardless of the corresponding installation situation, where the corresponding sensor (gyro-sensor), through the use of automated manufacturing processes, can be adjusted to the appropriate orientation at the installation site and where special fasteners are not required to secure the sensor in its final, correctly oriented position.
This task will be accomplished as described below.
If the sensor (gyro-sensor) is placed in a housing that has at least one casing shell surface or is connected to such, where there are complementary tabs and notches on the housing and on the gyro-sensor that allow the gyro-sensor to be installed in at least two different positions in the housing, and/or where the housing with its casing shell surface is placed in a holding device, where the housing can be placed in the holding device in at least one predefined mounting position, then it is ensured that immediately after the gyro-sensor and housing or the housing and holding device are physically connected, the gyro-sensor will be oriented as required for the specific installation. In particular, all measures previously required to orient the sensor (gyro-sensor) after putting the corresponding parts together do not have to be taken anymore.
The last advantage does not exist, however, when the casing shell surface has a cylindrical cross-section as the housing could be rotated in the holding device in this case. However, as stated below that you must be able to place the housing in at least one predefined mounting position in the holder, the advantage stated above exists when complementary tabs and notches in the housing and the holding device are used to determine the predefined mounting position.
The predefined mounting position for the housing in the holder is implemented in that the cross-section of the casing shell surface has at least three edges formed by sections of the casing shell surface. This design has the advantage that the casing shell surface itself is the corresponding feature that is used to orient the housing in the holding device in this design.
If there is at least one tab located on the housing such that a line drawn through this tab and the center point M of the housing intersects one of the sections of the casing shell surface whereby the distances from the point of intersection to the edges of this section of the casing shell surface are different, then a number of orientations can be produced solely through physical contact when assembling the corresponding parts by rotating the housing and holding device or housing and gyro-sensor in opposite directions.
If a circuit board that provides additional electrical contact to other electronic elements of the locating system is necessary for the operation of the sensor (gyro-sensor), then this can also be used as a holding device in the housing.
If there are contact paths on the sensor (gyro-sensor) and/or the circuit board that are concentric with respect to the center point M of the housing when the gyro-sensor is inserted in the housing, then the result is a particularly simple type of contact that is also independent of the corresponding orientation of the sensor in the housing.
We would like to point out at this point that the application of the invention is not limited to gyro-sensors, but can be used for all sensors that require a particular type of orientation.